Solar power costs

In Mark Lawson’s rush to attack all things “green”, he ignores some well-worn analysis about the falling cost of renewable energy such as solar panels (“Time to discard Green fairy stories”, April 30). Perhaps, like his enthusiasm for tales of the 19th century French nobility, it is because he is spending too much time looking backwards rather than keeping up with the times. While Lawson says that power from solar panels remains “hopelessly uncompetitive and likely to remain so”, he ignores figures from the International Energy Agency that show a 75 per cent reduction in the price of solar power systems –with analysts predicting solar power will drop to the price of retail electricity around the middle of the decade. Solar power systems have now helped 600,000 Australian households reduce their power bills.